Hi
I looked at the discussion about broker comparison, but I thought I’d add another one from a slightly different perspective. It’s really easy for an individual to get a book-entry account online, but for a company it seems to involve a lot of paperwork. I inquired with Nordnet, but there was a long delay in customer service. Other important things would be
Reasonable fees for trades around 10k€.
Functional applications for computer and phone
Broad participation in listings
Convenient reports for accounting
Plus for good news services
I have been looking at Mandatum Trader and Nordnet. Nordnet is already familiar. My enthusiasm for Mandatum stopped when there would apparently be a large stack of contracts to fill in English. Nordnet, on the other hand, says that processing takes a long time.
Mandatumi has been quick and helpful in all the contacts I’ve made. I like that its app is very good, as well as the price and selection. The overall experience is light-years ahead of others I use (Nordea, Nordnet)
Last year, I opened accounts for my company at Nordnet and Mandatum. At Nordnet, it took 7 weeks from the electronic application to create a brokerage account. At Mandatum, it took three weeks, although the process was a bit more laborious with about five different PDF forms. This is how I see it:
Nordnet
(+) Superloan for the company
(+) Convenient participation in various offerings directly from the service.
(-) Limited selection of different exchanges
(-) Too high (cream-skimming) trading fees, if not Active Trader / Private Banking prices
Mandatum
(+) Wide access to almost every stock exchange in the world.
(+) If the portfolio is over 50k€, trading fees are significantly cheaper than NN Private Banking.
(+) More comprehensive news/analysis offering from Saxo.
(-) No real-time prices for the Nordic countries (Rebate system, where you get them for free if you make 4 trades/month)
(+) Access to trade in US pre-market
(+) Access to trade options!
(-) No equivalent to a superloan
(-) No access to offerings
Mandatum offers the Trader Pro application for Windows/Mac for free, while Nordnet’s Infront comes with an additional fee. Mobile applications work well for both, and reports for accounting are easily accessible from both.
If Mandatum were to introduce a product similar to a superloan, I would centralize all trading there, except for a small cash reserve at Nordnet for offerings.
A very timely topic for me as well, I just applied for an LEI code for my company and was wondering where to open an account.
A few key things for me:
I have my company account at Holvi. At least previously, Nordnet apparently didn’t accept a Holvi account as a counter-account, how about Mandatum?
The main purpose would be to invest in ETFs for tax efficiency, as an limited liability company (Oy) has to pay corporate taxes on all dividend income if the company’s profit is otherwise positive. Does Nordnet’s monthly savings also work for companies?
Do personal and company accounts work with one ID in Nordnet and Mandatum?
Works on Nordnet with a power of attorney, all under the same ID.
Edit:
I have the same experiences as @Nalle2 earlier. All my portfolios are in Nordnet, and I’m satisfied except for the brokerage fees and the speed of customer service.
I might have used the word “generously” a bit exaggeratedly here. I have trauma from Nordnet when they charged a $56 trading fee from my personal account for selling a Nikola position
For a 10k€ buy & sell, NN fees are 16€ and Mandatum 12€, so the difference is quite negligible.
Then again, if the portfolio is >500k€, Mandatum’s fees are 0.03%. At that point, the difference starts to accumulate as the average trade size increases.
As an additional question to the previous list, Mandatum also allows access to the US pre-market, which I have personally utilized a couple of times, especially useful if you’re playing with SPACs!
Yes, this works a bit better with Nordnet, where you can see all portfolios for which you have a power of attorney (company) in your general view, and when making an order from your personal account, the portfolios under power of attorney can be found in the account list. With Mandatum, when you log in with bank IDs, you first have to choose whether to start your own personal session or a company session. Switching between these always requires a new login with bank IDs.
This was valuable practical information that you can’t really get from reading brochures. This might actually be a game-changer. I would have already opened an account, but it says “The processing time for customer applications is currently estimated to be 3–5 weeks.” It makes me wonder if I could get it a bit faster somewhere.
I’ll answer myself, this seems to be a dealbreaker for my company:
A Holvi account can be used as a counter account, but you cannot withdraw money to it via Nordnet’s online service. Withdrawals can only be made manually by the payment transactions department. The processing fee for a manual withdrawal request is 20 euros.
I still recommend Nordnet, and it might not actually take that long. They just have to give the worst-case scenario.
Please note that you will need an LEI (Legal Entity Identifier) code for your company in any case - no matter where you open the account.
Getting an LEI through Bloomberg is the cheapest, but a more straightforward option might be, for example, from the PRH (Finnish Patent and Registration Office).
Open a personal account in some bank and use it as an intermediary account, so you transfer the money from there immediately to Holvi. In accounting, you loan the withdrawn money to yourself and return it to the company immediately. Make sure you are not in debt to the company at the end of the financial year - otherwise, there will be taxes.
If your company is already in debt to you, or there are cash expenses etc. that accumulate this, then you don’t even need to put everything back to the company.
Does anyone have more recent experience with opening corporate accounts? I’ve now acquired a LEI and need to decide whether to go with Nordnet’s or Mandatum’s (or someone else’s) corporate account. @Nalle2’s earlier summary highlighted Mandatum’s advantages, but on the other hand, Nordnet would be familiar and safe for me beforehand and would work with the same credentials I use for my personal account.
Is there anything else I should keep in mind or remember before starting to invest, other than applying for a LEI (Legal Entity Identifier)?
Nowadays, opening a Nordnet account for a company can be done directly through their website. So, it’s no longer a big deal. Transferring an account is a slightly bigger project, but I managed that too.
